by Elle, Leen
"Don't be upset. It's one of his less popular works." Luke offered.
Sophie doubted that a lesser known work would be worth stealing, but she didn't let her distrust show.
"Who was the hacker and con artist for this mission?" She asked, trying to focus on the task at hand.
"I have no idea. Max chooses them without my knowledge. I only receive the products themselves." He motioned to his backpack where the replica was hidden. "Since this is a simple mission, I decided to work with an older program I received a few years ago."
"Years ago? You don't think security has been updated since then?" Sophie scolded.
"Don't underestimate the products of a skilled hacker. Old does not always mean obsolete." Luke pulled out a dark flash drive from his pocket. "This program has gotten me out of many tricky situations in the past."
"You mean the system isn't already hacked?" She'd assumed he'd already taken care of security.
"No, too much work." Luke answered, laughing. "Plus, I thought you would enjoy having something to do, other than sit back and watch." He tossed her the flash drive and she glanced at it suspiciously. "Your task is to get that into the security guards computer without being noticed. The moment it's in, the whole system will be wiped clean."
"How am I supposed to do that?" Sophie wondered aloud, her mind temporarily paralyzed by surprise. The only thought in her head was how impossible the task seemed.
"You learn how to act." He offered, grinning. "Be memorable to the point that you're forgeable."
"That makes no sense, and you know it." Sophie hissed in frustration.
Luke shrugged, still smiling. "That's how it was explained to me. It means that you can't be so invisible that you're suspicious, and not so noticeable that they remember you afterwards."
"Easy enough." Sophie muttered.
"You'll get the hang of it. I've seen how quickly you learn." He raised his eyebrows as he watched her.
"Well, people change when they're threatened." She reminded him.
"Then feel threatened. If you get caught, there's no way Cleo's going to risk herself over something this small. Especially when you came without her permission to work with her enemy."
"You make it so easy to feel confident." Sophie growled sarcastically.
"I try." He laughed. "Once you plug it in, it should take exactly sixty-seconds for the program to enter into the computer. After you're done, press this switch." He motioned to side of the flash drive. "This will erase everything on the drive. Then you can feel free to throw it away."
"It sounds simple enough." Sophie admitted, still feeling nervous.
"If it makes you feel better, it's unlikely that someone will try to shoot you here." He was trying to make her smile, and she did for his benefit. "Since all the guards carry tasers."
Sophie's mouth dropped open, her eyes narrowing.
"I'm just kidding." He waved away her shock, glancing down at his feet for a brief moment. "Seriously though, try not to get on their bad side."
Sophie rolled her eyes, wondering where Luke suddenly got all of his humor. She wondered if this was his way of trying to calm her down. She was surprised to realize that it had worked.
"So, when I'm done with crashing the system, you're going to replace the painting in a crowded room full of people without getting caught."
"Exactly." He nodded, seeming pleased she'd been able to keep up.
"Someone's confident." She muttered, trying to figure out how he was going to do it.
"Well, I've technically been working at this museum for a couple of years now." Luke's eyes crinkled with suppressed laughter as he held out his name-tag.
Just as he'd said, the tag held his picture, position, and other falsified information.
"I didn't know that you were in charge of transporting paintings." As long as the name-tag wasn't questioned, Sophie could see how easy it would be for him to switch out the replica and original.
"Just so everything went smoothly today, I visited here various times over the past three months so that the guards know who I am."
"You're that devoted?" She asked, sincerely surprised.
"This is the closest museum to my home. I thought it would be a good investment to always have a solid way of stealing from here."
"Wouldn't it be easier for the police to find you if you live so close?" Sophie asked.
"Not if you're as good as I am." He replied, in a way that was more joking than arrogant. "Do you think you're ready?" He'd been leaning against the car for a the duration of their conversation, though now he seemed ready to leave.
"Yeah. Only one more question." She paused, wondering if it would sound rude. "If you and Robert are so skilled, why do Max and Cleo still keep you around? You said they don't trust skilled thieves, and it seems like you are the best of the best."
"We're not the best in our field. We're just the most stable." Luke sighed, like his next comment was difficult to say. "Max knows I won't betray him. However, it's a different story with Robert."
"How so?" She pressed.
"Robert's goal is tied with Cleo, so there's no reason he would betray her." Sensing Sophie still wanted to know more, Luke shook his head to stop her from asking. "I don't know the whole story, just pieces. If you want more, you'll have to talk to him about it."
Reluctantly, Sophie decided to end her questioning.
"I guess this is it then." Sophie said, trying not to let her anxiety leak through.
"It'll be fine." Luke replied, motioning for her to follow him out of the parking lot.
While she might've had all the reasons in the world to be distrustful, Sophie knew she believed in him.
No matter how stupid that decision was.
* * *
The beginning of the plan went better than Sophie could have ever hoped.
It wasn't like the movies where challenge after challenge needed to be overcome. In truth, everything was much simpler than she'd imagined.
Luke's task was so easy she felt like she could've done it herself. He'd already obtained a matching uniform as the other security guards, and his name tag was all the identification he needed. When they'd reached the entrance to the museum, he'd brushed through security without catching any attention. The guards seemed to recognize him and he smoothed over any possible doubts by calling each by their first names.
His execution was flawless. Sophie couldn't help but be impressed with how everything clicked together.
Now, it was her turn to prove her worth, though she wasn't nearly as confident as he seemed to be. Luke had everything figured out months in advance for this one job, while Sophie had just found out less than an hour ago what her task would be. She'd never been good at improvising, though she knew this would be the time to learn.
Luke had approved of her casual appearance, saying she seemed like any other young boy entering the museum. He'd advised her to think up a character that would go along with her appearance, but that was easier said than done.
As she stared up the marble steps to the museum, she decided that the simplest role she could choose would be of an apathetic teenager. The guards would be expecting it, and she doubted it would be very memorable. A young teenage boy entering a museum with rapt interest would stand out more than one looking like they didn't care about anything.
Taking a slow breath, Sophie slouched her body, feeling like an idiot for trying so hard. Luke had wanted her to be natural, but nothing in her pose was natural for her. The whole mission of acting like a boy was foreign. She hadn't spend the last twenty-one years of her life living as a girl so that she could switch around her gender identity now.
The moment she crossed into the museum, she reached in the pocket of her sports jacket to grasp the flash drive. It gave her confidence in place of her lacking acting skills. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the main security desk in the lobby. Three security guards were sitting down, staring at their monitors intently. The focused gazes made Sophie assum
e they weren't just watching a security feed.
There were only two other guards in the lobby area, one by the main entrance, and the other patrolling the halls. In a few minutes the latter had vanished down one of the many twisting hallways that led to other exhibits.
Luke had made her task seem so simple. She doubted he realized that not everyone could breeze by security without answering any questions. Especially a "teenage boy" that was already attracting attention since he'd paused in the middle of the lobby.
If Luke had assumed she could just follow his lead, he'd been sadly mistaken. She was going to need to come up with her own plan of attack, and it would mostly likely be excessively simplistic and rash. At the moment, Sophie felt like she would be grateful for any kind of plan, stupid or otherwise.
She began heading for the first exhibit, realizing she couldn't keep standing still. Her eyes roved over the various pieces of art, looking for some kind of idea.
Her eyes locked on a sign that was placed strategically along the hallways of the museum. It held a picture of a camera which was covered with an obvious red X.
"No pictures." She mused, a smile lifting on her lips. This would be reckless, but it was all she had.
Slipping out her cell phone from her back pocket, she clicked onto the camera function. Trying to make it obvious that she was photographing the art, she began to take creative shots, while standing on benches, or approaching the paintings up close.
In less than five minutes the patrolling guard had noticed her blatant disregard for the rules. She felt a stiff hand on her shoulder as he spun her around.
"We do not allow photography within the museum." He ordered, looking stern.
"I understand." Sophie answered rudely, scowling for full effect. She waited until he had continued his rounds to continue snapping pictures down the hallway.
Having assumed she would continue, the guard had turned back to find her ignoring his command.
"Phone." He offered out his hand, his eyes narrowing.
"No, thanks." She shoved it back in her pocket.
"I have the authority to confiscate any prohibited items. You can pick it up on your way out."
"I'm expecting a very important phone call." She replied, rolling her eyes.
On a normal day she doubted the guard would've been so ticked off at her show of disrespect. Today he seemed like her behavior was the last straw.
"Come with me." He ordered, grabbing ahold of her arm and nearly dragging her to the security desk in the lobby. "Have fun dealing with this one." He hissed to the other guards, who glared at Sophie in turn.
"You can't throw me out." Sophie commented in a mocking voice. "My little sister is here. If my mother knew you separated us, you have no idea how much hell she would put you through."
They didn't seemed daunted by the threat. "You can wait here until she's finished." One of the guards sitting down answered just as rudely.
They motioned for Sophie to sit in a vacant chair next to them. It was supposed to belong to a fourth guard, but the owner wasn't present.
"You guys must be having a rough day." Sophie sat down with a loud thump to show her disapproval. "Picking on someone like me just because I broke a few stupid rules."
"We get brats like you all the time." One guard answered while staring at one of the monitors that was displaying a baseball game. "Always wanting to cause trouble."
Sophie sat back in her chair, knowing she was too far away from the main computer. She sensed that Luke was growing impatient. On a normal mission he would've probably been in and out by now.
"You guys get paid to watch TV?" Sophie mentioned, staring passed the game to search for a path to the computer they were blocking.
Luke had said she'd need sixty-seconds to let the flash drive do its' job. She would be cutting it close, but she had to move.
"Woah, look at that hit." Sophie stood, leaning over the guard next to her to get closer to the screen. While they were momentarily focused on the game, she swiftly pulled out the flash drive, slipping it into the computer to the side of the screen as quickly as she could.
She was halfway on top of one of the security guards, when they finally realized she was there.
"Watch it, kid." The guard said as they tried to push her off. She stubbornly remained in place, shifting her body so that it blocked the flash drive.
"I told my sister I wanted to see the game." Sophie cursed under her breath, hoping she sounded realistic. "She insisted on coming to this dump." She scowled, rolling her eyes again in what she assumed was a teenager-ish way.
"You like baseball?" One of the guards laughed as they noticed how awkwardly positioned she was to get closer to the monitor. "Pull up a chair, you don't have to crawl over Tom."
Sophie's eyes widened. It hadn't been nearly sixty-seconds yet.
Just as she was about to come up with some attempt at an excuse, the sound of a ball hitting a bat drew all the attention back to the screen. A player had just hit a pop fly. The ball landed in the glove of the left fielder, who threw it infield to the second baseman. The moment the ball hit the baseman's glove and the runner reached the base were less than a second apart.
While the umpires decided on whether the runner was safe or out, Sophie found the perfect opportunity to slip out the flash drive. Her random stroke of luck had allowed the drive more than enough time to finish up its' run.
"I'm just going to wait outside." Sophie said in a hushed breath, backing away from the guards as quickly as she could. They'd begun to argue over the umpires call and paid her no attention whatsoever.
Instead of waiting for them to realize she was leaving, she rushed out of the lobby as quickly as possible. Once she was safely outside she realized her actions were suspicious, though none of the guards seemed to notice. If the flash drive had worked, there would be no security camera footage to show her running away either.
With shaking hands Sophie pulled the switch on the side of the flash drive that would erase all the data. She threw it in the nearest trashcan while walking as far away from the museum as she could. The moment she felt safe enough to rest, she settled down on a nearby bench to give herself some time to recover.
She'd succeeded in her mission, but she felt nowhere near relieved. Sophie couldn't forget that if it wasn't for the baseball game, she would've surely been caught. Luke would tell her not to worry about it, but she could visualize Robert laughing at her if he knew. Professional thieves didn't make mistakes like that.
She leaned back against the bench, closing her eyes tightly. She wanted to feel proud of her first real mission, but she couldn't muster enough enthusiasm. As she contemplated her mistakes, she barely noticed when a passerby tossed a tiny paper bag onto the bench. It took a few moments to realize that she wasn't crazy, and she picked the bag up in her hands.
"Hey!" She called out, standing to take a few steps in the direction the person had gone. While she'd been lost in her own world she hadn't seen who it had been. "You lost your bag!" She continued, frustrated now. This was the last thing she needed to worry about.
Then, the bag began to ring and vibrate at the same time. Sophie nearly dropped it in surprise. She pried opened the bag to reveal a small cell phone lying at the bottom. She sighed, wondering who would just throw away a phone like this. Reaching inside, she picked up the phone, still debating whether to answer or not.
She didn't think it would be right to answer a strangers phone, but it kept ringing constantly, to the point where it drove her insane. Finally, ignoring all sense of right and wrong, she answered the call.
"Hello?" She asked, frustrated. "This isn't my..."
"Miss me?" A smooth, amused voice asked before she could continue.
Her mouth dropped open in shock. She didn't want to believe it was true.
"I leave you alone for one day and you've already joined the enemy. I hope Luke's playing nice."
Sophie would've recognized that mocking voice anywhere.
&nbs
p; "Robert?" She asked, immediately feeling stupid for having to. Obviously, it wouldn't be anyone but him.
"You seemed like the type that would be more loyal than this. I have to say, I'm disappointed."
Her shock faded away to be replaced by defensiveness. "You should be the last person to talk to me about loyalty." Her lips curled up in a smile, hoping her next comment would annoy him. "You never told me how reliable Luke was. He's taught me so much in such a short amount of time. I'm considering switching mentors."